Keyboard shortcut to select the word immediately around the cursor

[PRR]

I am constantly taking my hands off the keyboard to use the context
menu for individual words, or to do something else with them. Is there
a keyboard shortcut to select the word the cursor is inside? I didn't
find anything on google, except the suggestion to use Ctrl+Shft+ an
arrow (right, left, up, or down), but this only selects what is in
front or behind the cursor, either to the end of the word, or to the
end of the paragraph. Is there a shortcut that will select the entire
word, and nothing more?

 

[Steve Yandl]

Press the F8 key twice and then press the Esc key. If you don't press the
Esc key, the word where the cursor is will be selected but you subsequent
key presses or mouse clicks will expand the selection and you'll drive
yourself nuts.

Once you press F8 twice and Esc once, you can bring up the context menu for
the selection by pressing Shift plus F10.

Also handy, F8 three times will select the sentence, four times the
paragraph and five times the section. And you'll still want to press Esc
once.


Steve Yandl

 

[PRR]

Steve, thanks a lot. You know, I'm surprised that this shortcut isn't
more widely known. I doubt that it has ever been on the shortcut lists
I've seen before, although from here on out I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Double-clicking a word (to select it) has also been a big time-saver
for me (use it all the time) and when my hands are already on the
keyboard, I can do the same thing this way.

As far as hitting the esc key--thanks for the heads up. If I
understand it correctly, as long as you apply formatting (or make
whatever change you wanted to make) right after hitting F8 twice, you
can then hit the arrow keys, etc. without doing any damage--correct? I
tried it out and I found I was ok as long as I immediately went to
make the change. Pls correct me if this isn't the case.

Thanks again.

 

[Steve Yandl]

The first press of the F8 key puts you in 'extended selection' mode. If you
only pressed F8 once, you could use arrow keys to expand the selection one
character at a time or you could use the 'period' key to expand to grab the
entire sentence etc. In the case of pressing F8 a second time, you end up
selecting the word where the cursor was placed. You can expand or reduce
the selection as often as you like prior to getting out of 'extended
selection' mode by using the Esc key. What you describe in your inquiry
should work fine.


Steve



Steve, thanks a lot. You know, I'm surprised that this shortcut isn't
more widely known. I doubt that it has ever been on the shortcut lists
I've seen before, although from here on out I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Double-clicking a word (to select it) has also been a big time-saver
for me (use it all the time) and when my hands are already on the
keyboard, I can do the same thing this way.

As far as hitting the esc key--thanks for the heads up. If I
understand it correctly, as long as you apply formatting (or make
whatever change you wanted to make) right after hitting F8 twice, you
can then hit the arrow keys, etc. without doing any damage--correct? I
tried it out and I found I was ok as long as I immediately went to
make the change. Pls correct me if this isn't the case.

Thanks again.